UO Awarded Mellon Foundation Grants 

Will support Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies Department and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies

The Mellon Foundation announced that as part of an ongoing commitment to supporting humanities-based learning, the foundation has awarded more than $18 million to 95 public college and university programs—across 66 institutions—that boldly advance the study of race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality through its new ‘Affirming Multivocal Humanities’ initiative.

Funding will support both established and novel curricular programs and co-curricular activities ranging from undergraduate research projects and guest speaker series, microgrants for community organizations and external programs to promote clear understandings of the fields to the public.

As the nation’s largest funder of the arts, culture, and humanities, Mellon has long supported the exploration of multivocality within the academic space. Through the Affirming Multivocal Humanities initiative, the foundation further addresses the continuing need for nuanced scholarship on the breadth of the human experience through race, ethnic, gender, and sexuality studies. In this pivotal moment in the history of the United States, research and teaching in these fields epitomize the essential exercise of academic freedom within the US higher education system.

“The study of race, gender, and sexuality has become ever more central to work in the humanities over the last thirty years or so,” said Mellon Foundation Director of Higher Learning Phillip Brian Harper, “and it is important that inquiry in these areas—which is of perennial interest to students—continue to enjoy robust support.”